Is God Calling Me?

Answering the Question Every Believer Asks

Jeff Iorg

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9780805447224
• eBook ISBN: 9780805463972
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Is God calling me? It's the foundational question that must be answered by anyone considering entry into ministry leadership and then revisited regularly over a lifetime. Writing to a student and young adult audience—although applicable to leaders of all ages—Iorg declares the purpose of his brief, yet powerful book: "God is calling out a new generation of kingdom leaders who will accelerate the fulfillment of the Great Commission in this generation. My goal is to cut to the heart of the matter and give you tools to work through the call process." Endorsements Jeff Iorg offers a personal, practical, and rich exploration of God's call to ministry in Is God Calling Me? —Paul Chitwood, President, International Mission Board No matter where you are on your faith journey, this book provides an excellent guide as you ask God how He might use you to share the gospel and build strong churches. —Kevin Ezell, President, North American Mission Board

Defining the Concept of Call

CHAPTER 1

Few concepts are talked about more and understood less in Christian circles than God's call. Some believers claim to be called into ministry, to missions, to the pastorate, or to some other church leadership role as a special instruction from God. Others contradict that narrow understanding with the claim that all believers are equally called to serve God. Still others point out phrases in the Bible such as “called to be holy” or “called out of darkness” (i.e. 1 Pet. 1:15, 2:9) as evidence that calling is just another word for a common spiritual experience, not a special or specific instruction from God.

Who is right about all this? Does God call people to serve him in special ways? Are all believers called? If they are, are all callings equal before God? Is the concept of call simply another way to describe the sanctification process? Is it an overspiritualized way to describe how circumstances just happened to turn out? Or does all this fit together somehow as these definitions and understandings relate to one another?

Part of the problem in understanding the concept of call is the different ways call is used in popular vernacular. The most common is a phone call. More than 200 million Americans own cell phones. People can call almost anyone, anytime. Call can also mean to speak in a loud voice, to summon attention. It can mean a distinct sound—like a mating call.

Call describes inviting someone to participate on a team, join a program, or do their duty. For example, a player is called up from the junior varsity to the varsity, or a reservist is called to active military service, or a citizen is called for jury duty. You might also call for an investigation or call for the question or call for a hand to be shown in cards. The instructions at a square dance are called. A football announcer calls a game, and a tennis match can be called off when it rains.

An umpire calls a game, and a loan officer can call in a bad loan. You are supposed to call a spade a spade, call the shots when you are in charge, and call it quits at the end of the day. And when a friend is bereaved, you call on them to pay your respects.

No wonder there is so much confusion! The word call is overworked, shaped by its context to fit multiple definitions and situations. The word means so many things, it is difficult to isolate a core definition.

There are, however, two recurring themes throughout these different usages of call. First, a call brings new information. When your phone rings, someone usually wants to tell you something. Whether you call a game or call for the question, you are communicating. So, a call transmits new information. Second, a call brings new responsibility. A call puts you on the team, into battle, or on a jury. You are called to do something—play a game, dance a jig, make a decision. A call means it's your turn to get involved.

Keep these two ideas in mind—information and responsibility—as we develop an understanding of God's call. As we move toward a biblical understanding of call, these two concepts will be important. When God calls, he gives new information about how to live. When he calls, he assigns new responsibility in his kingdom.

Unfortunately, when used in Christian circles, there are almost as many different uses for the word or concept of call as in popular vernacular. We label all kinds of experiences “a call from God.” We use the word to describe different kinds of spiritual experiences with little regard for precise meanings. We say we are called and presume the context helps our hearers know what we are talking about. Sometimes that works. Too often, however, people smile and nod—confused about what we are talking about but too polite to question or contradict us.

Writers on the subject of call have contributed to this problem. A survey of the literature reveals many pages devoted to describing call experiences, defending the importance of a call, trying to explain what it is, and encouraging people to clarify and honor their call. All this, but seldom can you find a one-sentence definition of call that is consistently explained, used, and interpreted.

This book is different. After considering dozens of call experiences in the Bible, reflecting on my own experiences of being called, listening to other leaders describe their unique call stories, and reading many books and articles on call—here is my definition:

A call is a profound impression from God that establishes parameters for your life and can be altered only by a subsequent, superseding impression from God.

A Call Is a Profound Impression from God

A call is an inner experience. It is an impression from God, an inner experience with God. It is a work of the heart. A call is something you know you have, you are confident is real, and yet it is often difficult to quantify or explain. You know you are called, in short, because you know it in your heart.

This experience-based definition troubles some people. Certainly such an important spiritual concept must be more objective than this. Allowing this much subjectivity might lead to abuse, misunderstanding, false claims, and uncertainty. Absolutely! The issue of call is open to all kinds of misinterpretations and mistakes. But that does not mean the definition is incorrect. It simply means we must learn to discern God's call by shaping our thinking with the Bible and evaluating our experience in its context and under its authority. A call is a subjective experience with God but always set against a biblical backdrop.

Observing the response of some seminary students to this point is amusing. They analyze everything, looking for concrete answers. So, after surveying the biblical material and critically analyzing the literature, it troubles some when I say, “When it comes to being called, ultimately, you just know it in your heart."There is no definitive three-step formula for understanding or experiencing God's call. Being called is more intuitive than analytic no matter how much data you collect (or how systematically this book tries to explain God's call). No amount of reasoning replaces the heartfelt conviction that God is calling you.

A call is a profound impression. A common practice in Christian circles is to use several terms interchangeably to describe an experience of God's direction. These include prompting, leading, directing, showing, and urging. For example, we say, “God prompted me...God led me...God directed me...God is showing me...God gave me a special desire to...” and so on. All of these are valid expressions. They are all ways we try to communicate the inner sense that God is guiding us.

But none of these terms should be used to describe a call. A call is different from a prompting, leading, directing, showing, or urging from God. A call is a profound impression from God. It is more than what happens routinely through daily devotions or daily discernment of God's activity in and through our lives. A call is a rare event. A call impacts us profoundly. A call resonates deeply within us and has long-lasting results.

As I'm writing this, I have been a believer in Jesus Christ for thirty-five years. My personal relationship with God through Jesus began when I was thirteen years old. Since then, I have had only five call experiences with God. Five call experiences in thirty-five years as a disciple! As we move through this book, I will use those experiences and the experiences of others to illustrate different aspects of the concept of call. But for now, remember this key point: call experiences are unique, infrequent encounters with God.

During my thirty-five years following God, he has prompted me, led me, directed me, shown me his will, and urged me in specific directions many times. I sense God's direction as I counsel people about spiritual issues, handle administrative matters, determine where and what to preach or teach, and manage the multiple demands of my ministry and family. All of these are valid experiences, but they are not callings.

A call is a profound impression from God. It happens rarely and has significant, life-altering ramifications. A call is an inner impression boring into the core of your soul, changing you forever. It is a deep inner work, sometimes an emotional, heartrending encounter with God. A call often unsettles or overturns life, while at the same time producing deep inner peace or satisfaction. On the outside, life may be disrupted. On the inside, you have a settled assurance of God's will. You cannot really explain it better than to say, “I'm called...and I know it in my heart.” And, when you know you are called, you live with its implications and the full impact of its meaning in your life.

A Call Establishes Parameters for Your Life

A call establishes parameters—protective guides—that bracket your life. Like giant parentheses, a calling establishes barriers to protect you and guide your behavior. A calling means you say yes to some things and no to others. When God calls, life's choices must be made in the context of answering the call. Anything incompatible with obedience must be rejected in pursuit of the call.

For example, God called me to ministry leadership prior to meeting my wife Ann. When we started dating, we had to settle an important issue quite early in our relationship. I could not date anyone who did not have a similar call to ministry leadership (and it turned out Ann had the same conviction). We discovered we shared a similar calling. This did not mean we were going to get married, but it gave us both the freedom to pursue our relationship, knowing marriage was possible.

Several college students have told me painful stories of ending relationships with potential life partners who did not share their call. One woman told me, “God has called me to give my life in China. Leaving my boyfriend over that issue was the single hardest decision I have ever made.” A young man sobbed deeply as he told of being dumped by his high-school sweetheart after God called him during college to be a pastor.

These parameters are not just relational. One friend reported, “God has called me to be a bivocational pastor, so I cannot accept offers from larger churches who would pay me a full-time salary.” When his church grew, he added other staff members rather than becoming a full-time pastor. A missionary was interviewed for a faculty position at a seminary but withdrew from the process, saying, “God called me to be a missionary, not to teach missions. I just can't leave the field.” Another person turned down lucrative secular employment, saying, “My call is to full-time ministry leadership. No distractions or temptations allowed.” All of these people recognize different but very real parameters put in place by their call from God.

A clear sense of call means more than saying no. It also informs our yeses. A college student reported, “God has called me to teach public school—my passion is junior-high kids!” So she is in college preparing to pursue God's call. A veteran pastor recently resigned a twenty-year pastorate to return to seminary. Why? God has called him to teach in the last season of his ministry, and additional academic preparation is required by those new parameters. Your calling establishes parameters—giant parentheses around your life—that control your choices and direct the outcome of your life.

This can be difficult for other people to understand. Parents struggle when their children answer a call to international missions. They wonder, “Can't you just do your ministry with immigrants in our country?” Yet, a person called to take the gospel to another place must go. Family members can also question a call when it comes later in life. Many people today are answering God's call to ministry after years in secular careers. Children accustomed to a certain lifestyle question their parents and wonder why they would forgo lucrative employment to enter the ministry. The answer is simple: the call mandates the change.

A call from God establishes parameters—parentheses, barriers, guidelines—that determine your choices in the future. What fits within the parameters of the call is acceptable; what does not is not. God-called people find contentment within these barriers. One wise mission leader said, “The safest place to be, anywhere in the world, is in the center of God's call.” God uses the parameters of your call to place you where he wants you, to protect you while you accomplish his purposes, and to shape you for effective service.

A Call Can Be Changed Only by Another Call

Because a call is a profound impression with lasting results, it will not be amended or added to very often. A call is an infrequent experience. When you are called, you stay called! But most Christian leaders experience a series of callings in their lives. The next chapter describes this process and explains a model for understanding the unfolding experience of God's callings.

This flexible-permanence of God's call means, when God calls, you remain faithful to the call until he calls again. Sometimes Christian leaders speak of being “released from a call.” That does not seem to be an accurate explanation of how God works. In the Bible, God always called people to someone, something, or somewhere. His calls were proactive, leading people to do new things, go new places, or attempt new ministries. A release from a prior call happens because a subsequent, superseding call experience overrides the previous call.

This understanding of call has two implications. First, God-called people pursue ministry as a calling, not as a ministry career. Your goal is not a bigger position, higher paycheck, or more prestigious situation. You are called, so you serve to fulfill your calling. Second, being called means you persevere through tough times. God-called men and women do not quit when circumstances are difficult. God-called people stay put, firmly planted, until they receive a subsequent, superseding call to a new assignment from God.

Ministry leaders, like secular employees, receive offers to change jobs. A pastor might be asked to leave one church for another, or a missionary could be asked to change people groups or mission fields. In these situations, ministry leaders do not make their decisions primarily based on compensation, benefit to family, suitability for service, or the ripeness of the opportunity. They make their decisions based on call.

The proper question to ask when offered a different assignment must be “Is God calling me to this new role?” When I interview any person for a ministry position, I always ask them to describe how they are experiencing God's call regarding the position. I am not listening for a formulaic answer, but I want to hear how a person is pursuing God and listening f...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author Note
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• A Conversation about the Question
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Continuing the Conversation